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Thursday, July 31, 2014

Review: The Black Island (Tintin #7)

The Black Island is the seventh of the Tintin series. This story starts off with a bang... literally. Tintin is out for a walk with his dog Snowy when they come upon a plane that appears to be in trouble. The plane makes an emergency landing, and when Tintin approaches to see if he can help, he is shot for his trouble! Luckily it's just a grazing wound, and he wakes up in the hospital more or less okay. There he hears from the bumbling detectives Thomson and Thompson that an unregistered plane has crashed in England, and they have been put on the case. Coincidence? Surely not.

Tintin checks himself out of the hospital and proceeds toinvestigate, and the usual crazy chain of events ensues. Tintin is soon matching wits with those who don't want him snooping around. He gets captured, escapes (with the help of Snowy) and soon runs afoul of a Dr. Muller, who appears to be the ringleader of a ring of forgers. He chases the bad guys all over England and ends up in Scotland, where he traces them to a crumbling castle on a desolate island. The castle apparently not uninhabited however- there is a local legend of a mysterious creature that resides there, and no one ever returns. This doesn't deter Tintin and Snowy of course, and when they arrive they find the legend to be true- although it's not what they would have expected. More hijinks ensue, Snowy comes to the rescue again, and Tintin finally comes face to face wih the ringleader of the whole operation- and gets a bit of timely last minute assistance. It's pretty much nonstop action from the get- go- I almost got breathless reading this.

We found this on vacation and had to get it. My daughter loves these and we had a lot of fun laughing over this one. This is an early one in the series so the larger supporting cast of later volumes is absent- it's mostly Tintin and Snowy here, but that's fine and it works. The artwork is superb as always, and really gives you a feel for the locations that Tintin goes to. This one has it all- a chase on a train, plane crashes, you name it. A fun, action packed story and a joy to look at as well.

8 comments:

Seeing your reviews of these has reminded me how much I enjoy the movie and how much I liked the one book I read. I've just put 7 three-in-one volumes on hold at the library (not all at once; I suspended the holds and will activate a few at a time after my summer vacation.)

Yay, hope you like them. The 3 in ones are good because you get a lot of story per volume- the only downside of those is they're smaller so the artwork is condensed a bit. They're great though and I've liked just about al lthe volumes I've read- even the ons that aren't my favorite are entertaining.

I have never read these books but I think I would enjoy them. I've been having fun going back and filling in the gaps in with my reading. This also sounds like a fun book to read aloud. I think my 4 year old would love it.

They are a lot of fun! There is a litle bit of (mild) violence and some drinking (the later ones w/ Capt. Haddock mainly) but other than that they're pretty clean. My girls like them and often crack up, they're pretty slapstick comedy too.

It's always weird for me when I see people outside of France or Belgium who know about Tintin or Asterix the Gaul (I know, Spielberg has been there). And I didn't know Milou's English name was Snowy ! Glad you loved it ;)

I liked Tintin as a kid, read a few- but have only recently discovered how many there were. I wasn't crazy about the movie version, but love the books. I'm hoping to spread the word a little w/ these reviews, since they're so fun (and I think educational a bit too, especially for kids).

Do you read it to your daughter in different voices? My father used to do that when I was young but he'd deliberately pick accents that had nothing to do with the character though. Poor Snowy was saddled with a South African accent with just a hint of Spanish.

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Hi! Welcome to my blog. I am a writer and avid reader who loves to share a good book. I review mostly fantasy and YA, as well as mysteries and historical fiction. I also enjoy music, movies and used bookstores. Oh, and I'm a Renaissance festival junkie.

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All reviews are my own personal opinion and I am not compensated in any way for reviews. I review books I have purchased myself or books that have been provided by an author or publisher in exchange for an honest review. I am an Amazon affiliate and thus may make a small profit from the sale of any books linked to on the blog.